Photo credit by !Khwa ttu San Culture and Education Centre, Western Cape, South Africa

Amakhala Game Reserve, Eastern Cape, South Africa

Rwanda: Global African Investment Summit goes underway today

The weeklong celebration of Rwanda’s conservation achievements, known as Kwita Izina, has come to an end last Friday night, after 22 young born gorillas were named in front of President Paul Kagame, who for the second year running attended the event.

One of the ‘namers’ was Sir David Attenborough who had been invited by Rwanda’s immediate former Chief Tourism Officer and now Rwanda’s High Commissioner to the UK H.E. Yamina Karitanyi.

President Kagame reiterated in his address the country’s commitment to conservation when he said that Kwita Izina was also about remembering that development must be founded in environmental protection before adding that in Rwanda there will be no trade off between conservation and economic growth, as the two complement each other.

The speech, in the opinion of many conservation leaders present at Kwita Izina, should be made mandatory reading by President Kagame’s fellow Heads of State in East Africa, as they head to Dar es Salaam later this week for a summit, given the level of environmental neglect, destruction and lip service seen among some of the other EAC countries.

Today though, as the media wind down their reporting on Kwita Izina, is yet another high profile summit starting in Kigali’s new national convention and exhibition centre, now managed by Radisson Blu together with the adjoining hotel.

The Global African Investment Summit, incidentally held for the first time outside the UK, is kicking off in the morning and some 1.000 delegates and officials from governments around Africa are attending the meeting.

Organized by COMESA, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa together with the Rwandan government, is this a continental showcase event and star performer Rwanda of course is well if not best suited to host the meeting as the country seeks additional foreign investments in agro processing, mining and the service industry.

‘Rwanda’s policy decisions and hard stand against corruption have made the country a prime investment destination. Our national airline is expanding and connecting not just Africa’s key centres West, South and East but soon also India, China and Europe. This way we can link investors and opportunities’ said a regular contributor of information from Kigali last evening.